Customers received 90.7% of their mail the next working day after posting and the national target is 92.5%.

Royal Mail first class deliveries over the country achieved an improved 91.9% (90.4% in the previous quarter).

The worst performing areas were parts of Essex and east London (85.8%) and the best was St Albans (93.7%).

Other people receiving a less than average delivery service are living in the Peterborough (88.2%), Norwich (88.5%), Northampton (88.6%) and Cambridge (89.2%) postal areas.

Other results were: Hemel Hempstead (91.9%); Colchester (91.8%); and Ipswich (91.4%).

Busiest part of year

Managers say volumes are higher in the last quarter of the year.

The period that the figured covered are from October to December and sometimes transport is vulnerable to weather at this time year.

Second class post achieved 98.5% delivery within three working days, for the second quarterly period in succession.

Managers hail it as one of the best performances for second class post in the busiest part of the year for almost a decade.

Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier said the results bucked the usual seasonal trends and showed a continuing improvement in underlying performance during the busiest three months of the year.